Mandla 'Mampintsha' Maphumulo has been arrested for allegedly assaulting his partner Bongekile ‘Babes Wodumo’ Simelane. He appeared at Pinetown Magistrate's Court on assault charges, 5 March 2019. Picture: ANA
Mandla “Mampintsha” Maphumulo appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate’s court on Tuesday, facing charges of assaulting his girlfriend, gqom star Babes Wodumo, real name Bongekile Simelane.
However, it’s unlikely that the music producer and kwaito artist, who caused mass outrage when he was caught allegedly assaulting Simelane on camera, will see any jail time, as the couple has undertaken to go for family mediation at organisation Families South Africa (Famsa).
The matter will be back in court on June 11.
Earlier on Tuesday, it was reported that Maphumulo has dropped his counter assault charge against Simelane, his manager Lindo Buthelezi confirmed to Move!.
Following the Instagram video going viral, Mampintsha claimed the footage of him slapping Babes several times was, in fact, him defending himself, laying assault charges of his own which have reportedly now been dropped.
“They’ve reconciled and are back together and he has dropped the assault charges,” Buthelezi said.
Simelane had not, however, dropped her charges against Maphumulo, hence his court appearance still taking place.
READ MORE: Mampintsha granted R2K bail, to reappear in May
Those following the case had been surprised that despite her charges against Mamphintsha, Babes appeared to be on good terms with him following the assault, even featuring on his recent music video Khona Ingane Lay’Ndlini.
Before this, Babes was highly criticised by South Africans on social media after a video of her performing the song surfaced.
The song is controversial as its lyrics are the same words that were spoken by Mampintsha in the assault video that shocked South Africa in March.
Complicating matters further, before attending Mampintsha’s case on Tuesday, Babes first appeared in court, facing her own charges of assault after she allegedly attacked Neliswa Zondi.
Wodumo, with three other women, stands accused of assaulting Zondi, a woman who allegedly leaked video footage of Wodomo chatting to a group of people about her ordeal with partner Mampintsha.
Babes was filmed dancing the gwara gwara outside the courtroom after Zondi’s case against her was postponed until May 31.
She then left for Mampinthsa’s court appearance, where she was seen sitting in court, in the row behind where her boyfriend sat in the dock, facing charges of assaulting her.
(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)
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